Direct growth of cubic AlN and GaN on Si(001) with plasma-assisted MBE

Highly lattice mismatched (HM2) heteroepitaxial growth of cubic zincblende c-AlN and c-GaN on Si (001) was performed by MBE using plasma excited nitrogen sources without using a low temperature buffer layer. The early stage of the direct nucleation of AlN and GaN on a Si substrate using microwave and radio frequency plasma-assisted MBE was studied. The islands of a zincblende structured material (c-SiNx [a = 0.43 nm]), effectively worked as a seed for successive coherent growth of c-AlN and c-GaN oriented (001). The growth of c-AlN and c-GaN was analyzed by reflection high energy electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction, and photoluminescence. (C) 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.